RG Veda (RG is pronounced "rig") is one of the four books containing the tenets of the Hindu religion, although the story in the anime and manga are only very loosely related to this book. The two RG Veda OAVs which were produced are based on the manga by CLAMP, currently one of the hottest group of manga artists who have written such works as X, Magic Knight Rayearth, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, Card Captor Sakura, Clover, CLAMP Campus Detectives, Shin Shunkaden, and more. Since the OAVs delve very little into the core storyline in the manga series and since the OAVs are done such that some familiarity with the existing story is assumed, I am going to describe the manga series in some detail. The story takes places in Tenkai, a heavenly realm ruled peacefully by the god Tentei until Taishakuten (one of Tentei's warriors) rebelled and killed both Tentei and his strongest warrior, Ashura-O, the Guardian God of War. For 300 years, the seer Kuyo, who was loyal to Tentei, had been locked in a dungeon by Taishakuten for refusing to allow him to use her gift of prophecy. However, she finally escaped, prophesizing the appearance of the "Six Stars", who when united would bring about Taishakuten's downfall. Concerned, Taishakuten sent his warrior Yasha to find and kill her. However, when Yasha found her, she divined another particularly cryptic prophecy and told Yasha that he must journey to an indicated place and seek out a certain child. Following Kuyo's instructions, he found the child (a great story in itself) and returned to his village. Upon returning to the village, the child, named Ashura, was identified by the village elders as belonging to the ancient Ashura clan, thought extinct for 300 years after Taishakuten ordered all members of that clan wiped out. The villagers wanted Ashura killed, for harboring him/her would invite the wrath of Taishakuten. Later, demons appeared at the border of their land, and Yasha had to go repel them. However, fearing the villagers' desire to kill Ashura, he took him/her to battle, where Ashura's powers first manifested themselves. After repelling the demons, Yasha remembered that he had promised Kuyo to bring Ashura to her after finding him/her. Yasha traveled to the nearby place where Kuyo was, but when he arrived, she had just been killed by Bishamonten, another of Taishakuten's warriors sent out after Yasha's disappearance. Returning to his village, he discovered that Bishamonten had massacred his fellow clanspeople, wiping them out completely. At this point, Yasha swore to unite the Six Stars and bring about the downfall of Taishakuten's regime. This is the story about halfway through volume 1 of the RG
Veda. The story in the first OAV approximately covers the story in
volume 4 of the manga. At this point, Yasha has already joined up with
Karura-oh and Ryu-oh and is being pestered by Kujaku, possibly the coolest
and most important character in the series. The manga goes to ten volumes
and goes past the overthrow of Taishakuten. RG Veda has an extremely
engrossing and complex storyline and excellent artwork, and I highly
recommend it. If you're interested, there are synopses and lots of
information on the web at: By the way, are you curious about Ashura's gender? Well, he/she is genderless. You see, his/her father, Ashura-oh, was forbidden by fate from having children, since his son would be fearsome and destroy the world. (There's this "Black Ashura" split-personality who is truly fearsome and likes to do stuff like taste the blood of recently killed people.) Ashura-oh disobeyed and had a child, but as a form of punishment, his child was genderless and thus unable to bear children. Ashura can still destroy the world though... |